Law

The Law of God given through Moses at Sinai is not a rulebook for earning salvation. It is the covenant charter for Israel as Yahweh’s people: the terms of the relationship that followed the Exodus redemption, not the means of obtaining it. Yahweh does not give Israel the Law in order to save them; he saves them first and then gives them the Law as the pattern of life for those who already belong to him.

This sequence matters enormously. The Ten Commandments begin: “I am Yahweh your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery.” The redemption comes before the Law. Israel is not commanded to obey in order to earn their place as God’s people; they are commanded to obey because they already are.

Does the Law still apply to Christians today?

Jesus is direct about his own relationship to the Law: “Do not think that I came to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I did not come to abolish but to fulfil” (Matthew 5:17). Christ did not set the Law aside as though it no longer mattered. He met its full demand on behalf of those who could not, and the New Covenant does not make the Law irrelevant; it makes it inward, written by the Spirit on the heart rather than on stone. Believers are no longer under the Law as a system for earning standing with God, but its moral demand still describes what a life pleasing to God looks like.

What is the purpose of the Law?

Paul makes clear in Romans and Galatians that the Law was never given with the power to save. What the Law cannot do is save. It exposes sin, condemns sin, and pronounces a curse on everyone who does not keep all of it, but it provides no power to obey it. Paul describes its role in the meantime: “the Law has become our tutor unto Christ, so that we may be justified by faith” (Galatians 3:24). A tutor’s job ends once its purpose is served. The Law drives sinners to see their need and to look to Christ, not to supply righteousness on its own. Follow how this theme develops through the Bible.